Thursday, May 10, 2018

North Carolina GOPers just as nutty as ever UPDATED

Christian Supremacist Mark Harris

Published May 9, updated May 10 (see below). In Tuesday's Republican congressional primary, Mark Harris ousted incumbent Rep. Robert Pittenger in North Carolina's ninth congressional district. Harris is a Baptist minister with the usual bigotry baggage. In 2012 Harris was the leader of the movement to effect the state's ban on same-sex marriage. Recently, Harris wrote on his campaign website:

One of the most devastating blows to the American way of life has been the breakdown <sic> the family unit. A marriage consists of one man and one woman. The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision decided otherwise. I would support the nomination of conservative Supreme Court Justices that would re-visit this decision as well as “Roe v. Wade”.

So the doctrine of stare decisis (honoring precedent) should be flushed because Mr. Harris does not approve of gay people. He has no clue about the issue of Article III standing. Or does he think that they can just re-deliberate Obergefell v. Hodges?

Harris fails to define a problem (breakdown the family unit) is meaningless. Then he fails to define how overturning same-sex marriage would solve anything. Harris gives no though to the plight of children being raised by gay couples.

That is because Mr. Harris' bigotry is not based on any societal requirement. Not at all. Harris is a slave to ancient texts that are as inconsistent and incoherent as his website. Does Mr. Harris presuppose that gays are going to replace same-sex marriage with opposite-sex marriage?

In 2014 Harris was a Senate candidate. He was accused of financing part of his campaign with church offerings and then not reporting funds in accordance with campaign finance requirements. Oh, and he was National Organization for Marriage's candidate. He lost.

Update: It turns out that the very creepy David Lane is taking some credit for the success of Harris in the primary. According to CBN:

One of his staunchest supporters is David Lane, founder of the American Renewal Project, an organization that aims to encourage and equip pastors to run for office with the goal of affecting the culture.

Lane tells CBN News his organization doesn't keep track of individual races but knows of at least 300 pastors running at the local level.

“A grassroots, precinct-level explosion is occurring across the country by evangelical and pro-life Catholic Christians,” Lane said.

Perhaps we should thank the theocrat as this gives Democrats a real opportunity to pick up a seat in Dixie (in a district that Trump carried by 12 percentage points). The Democratic candidate is Dan McCready, a former Marine Corps captain. McCready has a significant campaign finance advantage over Harris. McCready operates a solar power farm.